Were you the type of kid who would have your class busting a gut laughing at your dead-on impersonation of your algebra teacher? Well, congratulations! Turns out YOU might have actually been the smartest kid in school.

That’s according to research published in the “International Journal of Humor Research” which certainly SOUNDS like a joke publication. I checked it, though. It’s real!

The study (which, for some reason, focused on kids in Turkey) show that class clowns tend to be more intelligent than the average. The difference was especially noted when it comes to verbal and reasoning skills. Which, I guess, KIND of makes sense. To be the class clown you have to be able to latch on to a concept, formulate a joke and then deliver the joke in a way that elicits laughs and/or detentions.

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If you’re the “class clown” of your workplace, though, don’t get too excited. The study shows that the clown-intelligence dynamic isn’t necessarily true for adults. If you’re a funny 40 year old it doesn’t mean you’re super-smart or even smarter-than-average. Sorry, Jim Halpert.

So, how much more intelligent are we talking here? The lead researcher says that if a child “frequently makes high-quality jokes” it’s VERY likely that the child has “extraordinary intelligence”.

Hmmmm. I think the researcher’s definition of “class clown” is very different than mine. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if “high-quality jokes” include shooting spitballs or making fart noises with your armpit while the teacher was writing on the blackboard.

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